1252 On the Position of the Composite and [Decembe, 
. : 
terially increased. Wallace (Tropical Nature, p. 50) says: “Mor 
than thirty years ago the number of known orchids was estimated 
by Dr. Lindley at 3000 species, and it is not improbable that they 
may be now nearly doubled. [We have seen this to be the case] 
But whatever may be the numbers of the collected or described — 
orchids, those that still remain to be discovered must be enor- 
mous. Unlike ferns the species have a very limited range, andit 
would require the systematic work of a good botanical collector 
during several years, to exhaust any productive district—say 
such an island as Java—of its orchids. It is not, therefore, atal 
improbable that this remarkable group may ultimately prove to 
be the most numerous of all the families of flowering plants” 
The Orchidez differ in a marked manner from all other plants, — 
standing almost isolated. In no other order do we find such 
marvelous contrivances to bring about cross-fertilization. ln 
many and in fact most instances the visits of insects are abst : 
lutely necessary in order to enable the plants to produce aly 
seeds, and we could not find such a state of affairs unless = 
order was a highly developed one. Many of the species have 
been so profoundly modified, that only one kind of insect cat be ‘ 
of use. Some of the gigantic orchids of Madagascar are abso- : 
lutely dependent upon large moths which are found in the samt 
island? In other species the sexes are separated, or ther 
or three different kinds of flowers of the same species. a 
bears the pollen, another the stigma, and a third is provided l 
both. The peculiar modification which the pollen has wa l 
the grains tied together by elastic threads, and the po! k 
closed in anther cells, is unknown to any other family except ie 
Asclepiadez, a family in no way connected with the Orchideæ. k 
A ; der shows it t0 i 
point of fact, everything about the whole or en 
nearly equal in rank, in point of structure, with the pE oly | 
pointed out, viz., Compositæ and Leguminosæ. It would be = 
to arrange any lineal scheme with Composite first, Les s 
second, and Orchideæ third. No one would dream of sie 
thing; but it is only just to say that each of these orders ® 
the highest place in each class it occupies. o it 
In the scheme here given (see chart) I have arrange placing 
of the Monocotyledons given by Bentham and Hooker. throug 
Orchidez at the head, we have affinities with Lin "o 
Burmanniaceæ, Hydrocharideæ, Naiadaceæ and Ponten 
there are two : 
